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Monday, April 19, 2010

Innovative Educators Can Help Students Get Creative with Comics Using Bitstrips

Visitors to The Innovative Educator blog have likely read Jeff Branzburg's funny (and accurate) comic strip commentaries, like his latest one about educational consultants. He makes them at http://bitstrips.com, a fun site that lets anyone create comics without having to draw.

Now there’s an educational version of the site designed for teachers, called Bitstrips for Schools. In addition to the avatar and comic-making tools, it features private virtual classrooms, teacher moderation controls, and a shared activities library covering a range of subjects for grades 1-12.

Take a look at how Bitstrips for Schools is used in one Grade 4/5 classroom in this video.

Multimodal digital tools like Bitstrips for Schools can help motivate 21st century learners to develop their skills in writing and editing, critical thinking, and visual and internet literacy.

The setup is pretty straightforward: Teachers create their classroom and assign students an activity from the library (you can also make your own). Students then log in with their unique classroom code, create their avatar, and complete and submit the activity using the comic builder. Students can collaborate, remix and comment on each other’s work, and teachers can grade comics and provide individual feedback.

Bitstrips for Schools is available for free to teachers in New York until the end of the school year – you can activate an account at www.bitstripsforschools.com/newyork. If you have or plan to develop a comic please share it and your experience, right here on The Innovative Educator.